Today: Apple again closes at an all-time high as analysts express optimism about iPhone and smartwatch sales., and Intel”s forecast leads to highest prices since 2001. Also: Intuit, Splunk and Aruba Networks release earnings.

The Lead: Apple and Intel reach fresh Wall Street highs

Two of Silicon Valley”s most iconic companies hit hew Wall Street highs Thursday, as Apple stock closed at a record for the sixth time in the past eight sessions and Intel reached its highest prices since 2001.

Apple shares gained 1.4 percent to $116.31 Thursday, pushing the Cupertino company”s record market capitalization to $670 billion. Analysts may have juiced the price with notes that predicted strong sales for iPhones and the yet-to-be-released Apple Watch.

Three analysts increased their price targets for Apple in notes ahead of Thursday”s session, with Morgan Stanley”s Katy Huberty making the most noise by predicting debut sales for Apple”s smartwatch at the high end of other estimates. After earlier projections this week of 20 million from RBC Capital and 20 million to 30 million from Above Avalon, Huberty predicted 30 million units will sell in the first year and reminded observers that initial estimates for iPhones and iPads ended up lower than actual sales.

“Ahead of iPhone launch in June 2007, the Street modeled 9 million units for (2008). Apple shipped 12M iPhones that year,” Huberty wrote, adding that Apple sold 15 million iPads in 2010 even as forecasts suggested sales of 5 million to 10 million.

“In addition, our AlphaWise survey indicates initial purchase intentions (for the Apple Watch) in the U.S. are higher than they were for the iPhone and iPad pre-launch,” Huberty also noted.

Huberty increased her price target for Apple from $115 to $126, but also suggested this scenario in which Apple shares would increase all the way to $150: “Larger screen iPhone drives more global share gains, new services drive accelerating revenue growth and Watch penetration exceeds expectations.”

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster and Evercore analyst Rob Cihra both increased their estimates for Apple”s stock price to $135 Thursday, arguing that any struggles to supply enough iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus for holiday shopping demand would not cost Apple in the long run.

“Supply constraints could limit meaningful upside in December,” Munster wrote. “However, we also believe that most consumers will wait to get an iPhone, thus the supply limits should extend the cycle into March.”

Intel received a larger daily bump, jumping 4.7 percent to $35.95 — the highest price since February of 2001 — while predicting stronger-than-expected revenue increases next year to analysts visiting the chipmaker”s Santa Clara headquarters.

“After two years of decline, we”re growing again,” Chief Financial Officer Stacy Smith proclaimed at Thursday”s meeting. “2014 is turning out to be a better year than we thought.”

After two years of revenue declines, Intel is expected to grow sales this year by about 6 percent, and analysts were expecting growth of 3 percent next year. However, the company said in a statement that growth will actually be in the “mid-single digits,” while also revealing an increase for Intel”s dividend payments.

SV150 market report: Intuit, Splunk, Aruba announce earnings

Gains from Apple and Intel helped push Wall Street indexes to yet more new records and help Silicon Valley tech stocks generate strong gains overall ahead of a handful of earnings reports after the bell.

Silicon Valley cloud software efforts proved popular in Thursday”s earnings reports, while the networking sector continued to struggle. Mountain View financial-software company Intuit — which is making the switch to a software-as-a-service model — gained in late trading after announcing a net loss of $114 million, or 29 cents a share, on sales of $672 million. Our shift to the cloud continues to accelerate customer growth, led by QuickBooks Online,” Intuit CEO Brad Smith said in a prepared statement. San Francisco big-data company Splunk experienced even larger gains after declaring a loss of $48.6 million, or 40 cents a share, on sales of $116 million, as CEO Godfrey Sullivan declared, “We had our best quarter yet with Splunk Cloud.” Silicon Valley”s networking sector continued to struggle, though, as Aruba Networks plunged in late trading after the Sunnyvale company revealed profits of $2.7 million, or 2 cents a share, on sales of $207.8 million.

Struggles in the networking sector could lead to a wave of acquisitions: After Wednesday”s $400 million-plus bid for Fremont”s Oplink Communications, Oplink rivals in optical networking Oclaro (up 10.6 percent, the largest daily gain in the SV150), Finisar (up 4.5 percent) and JDS Uniphase (up 1.9 percent) all had strong days as investors bet they will also be involved in consolidations. Meanwhile, struggling San Francisco networking company Riverbed Technology has received bids from three private-equity firms that want to acquire the company, Reuters reported; Riverbed gained 1.9 percent to 20.52 on the day, keeping its market valuation higher than $3 billion.

Google announced a new service that allows readers to block ads on certain websites and settled a patent beef with Rockstar, and the Mountain View company”s stock dropped 0.6 percent to $543.76. After stealing Google”s spot as the default search engine on Mozilla”s Firefox browser, Yahoo added 1.3 percent to $51.25. Netflix continues to command the most Internet bandwidth during peak periods, and the Los Gatos company is reportedly using its position to organize a meeting of some of the most powerful people in the media business; Netflix shares gained 1.4 percent to $368.14 Thursday. Tesla Motors increased 0.4 percent to $248.71 as Indian news outlets reported that the electric car maker would be targeting that country for sales, and Facebook gained 0.4 percent to $73.60 while convincing small businesses to post video to its social network.

Today: Apple again closes at an all-time high as analysts express optimism about iPhone and smartwatch sales., and Intel”s forecast leads to highest prices since 2001. Also: Intuit, Splunk and Aruba Networks release earnings.

The Lead: Apple and Intel reach fresh Wall Street highs

Two of Silicon Valley”s most iconic companies hit hew Wall Street highs Thursday, as Apple stock closed at a record for the sixth time in the past eight sessions and Intel reached its highest prices since 2001.

Apple shares gained 1.4 percent to $116.31 Thursday, pushing the Cupertino company”s record market capitalization to $670 billion. Analysts may have juiced the price with notes that predicted strong sales for iPhones and the yet-to-be-released Apple Watch.

Three analysts increased their price targets for Apple in notes ahead of Thursday”s session, with Morgan Stanley”s Katy Huberty making the most noise by predicting debut sales for Apple”s smartwatch at the high end of other estimates. After earlier projections this week of 20 million from RBC Capital and 20 million to 30 million from Above Avalon, Huberty predicted 30 million units will sell in the first year and reminded observers that initial estimates for iPhones and iPads ended up lower than actual sales.

“Ahead of iPhone launch in June 2007, the Street modeled 9 million units for (2008). Apple shipped 12M iPhones that year,” Huberty wrote, adding that Apple sold 15 million iPads in 2010 even as forecasts suggested sales of 5 million to 10 million.

“In addition, our AlphaWise survey indicates initial purchase intentions (for the Apple Watch) in the U.S. are higher than they were for the iPhone and iPad pre-launch,” Huberty also noted.

Huberty increased her price target for Apple from $115 to $126, but also suggested this scenario in which Apple shares would increase all the way to $150: “Larger screen iPhone drives more global share gains, new services drive accelerating revenue growth and Watch penetration exceeds expectations.”

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster and Evercore analyst Rob Cihra both increased their estimates for Apple”s stock price to $135 Thursday, arguing that any struggles to supply enough iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus for holiday shopping demand would not cost Apple in the long run.

“Supply constraints could limit meaningful upside in December,” Munster wrote. “However, we also believe that most consumers will wait to get an iPhone, thus the supply limits should extend the cycle into March.”

Intel received a larger daily bump, jumping 4.7 percent to $35.95 — the highest price since February of 2001 — while predicting stronger-than-expected revenue increases next year to analysts visiting the chipmaker”s Santa Clara headquarters.

“After two years of decline, we”re growing again,” Chief Financial Officer Stacy Smith proclaimed at Thursday”s meeting. “2014 is turning out to be a better year than we thought.”

After two years of revenue declines, Intel is expected to grow sales this year by about 6 percent, and analysts were expecting growth of 3 percent next year. However, the company said in a statement that growth will actually be in the “mid-single digits,” while also revealing an increase for Intel”s dividend payments.

SV150 market report: Intuit, Splunk, Aruba announce earnings

Gains from Apple and Intel helped push Wall Street indexes to yet more new records and help Silicon Valley tech stocks generate strong gains overall ahead of a handful of earnings reports after the bell.

Silicon Valley cloud software efforts proved popular in Thursday”s earnings reports, while the networking sector continued to struggle. Mountain View financial-software company Intuit — which is making the switch to a software-as-a-service model — gained in late trading after announcing a net loss of $114 million, or 29 cents a share, on sales of $672 million. Our shift to the cloud continues to accelerate customer growth, led by QuickBooks Online,” Intuit CEO Brad Smith said in a prepared statement. San Francisco big-data company Splunk experienced even larger gains after declaring a loss of $48.6 million, or 40 cents a share, on sales of $116 million, as CEO Godfrey Sullivan declared, “We had our best quarter yet with Splunk Cloud.” Silicon Valley”s networking sector continued to struggle, though, as Aruba Networks plunged in late trading after the Sunnyvale company revealed profits of $2.7 million, or 2 cents a share, on sales of $207.8 million.

Struggles in the networking sector could lead to a wave of acquisitions: After Wednesday”s $400 million-plus bid for Fremont”s Oplink Communications, Oplink rivals in optical networking Oclaro (up 10.6 percent, the largest daily gain in the SV150), Finisar (up 4.5 percent) and JDS Uniphase (up 1.9 percent) all had strong days as investors bet they will also be involved in consolidations. Meanwhile, struggling San Francisco networking company Riverbed Technology has received bids from three private-equity firms that want to acquire the company, Reuters reported; Riverbed gained 1.9 percent to 20.52 on the day, keeping its market valuation higher than $3 billion.

Google announced a new service that allows readers to block ads on certain websites and settled a patent beef with Rockstar, and the Mountain View company”s stock dropped 0.6 percent to $543.76. After stealing Google”s spot as the default search engine on Mozilla”s Firefox browser, Yahoo added 1.3 percent to $51.25. Netflix continues to command the most Internet bandwidth during peak periods, and the Los Gatos company is reportedly using its position to organize a meeting of some of the most powerful people in the media business; Netflix shares gained 1.4 percent to $368.14 Thursday. Tesla Motors increased 0.4 percent to $248.71 as Indian news outlets reported that the electric car maker would be targeting that country for sales, and Facebook gained 0.4 percent to $73.60 while convincing small businesses to post video to its social network.

Today: Apple again closes at an all-time high as analysts express optimism about iPhone and smartwatch sales., and Intel”s forecast leads to highest prices since 2001. Also: Intuit, Splunk and Aruba Networks release earnings.

The Lead: Apple and Intel reach fresh Wall Street highs

Two of Silicon Valley”s most iconic companies hit hew Wall Street highs Thursday, as Apple stock closed at a record for the sixth time in the past eight sessions and Intel reached its highest prices since 2001.

Apple shares gained 1.4 percent to $116.31 Thursday, pushing the Cupertino company”s record market capitalization to $670 billion. Analysts may have juiced the price with notes that predicted strong sales for iPhones and the yet-to-be-released Apple Watch.

Three analysts increased their price targets for Apple in notes ahead of Thursday”s session, with Morgan Stanley”s Katy Huberty making the most noise by predicting debut sales for Apple”s smartwatch at the high end of other estimates. After earlier projections this week of 20 million from RBC Capital and 20 million to 30 million from Above Avalon, Huberty predicted 30 million units will sell in the first year and reminded observers that initial estimates for iPhones and iPads ended up lower than actual sales.

“Ahead of iPhone launch in June 2007, the Street modeled 9 million units for (2008). Apple shipped 12M iPhones that year,” Huberty wrote, adding that Apple sold 15 million iPads in 2010 even as forecasts suggested sales of 5 million to 10 million.

“In addition, our AlphaWise survey indicates initial purchase intentions (for the Apple Watch) in the U.S. are higher than they were for the iPhone and iPad pre-launch,” Huberty also noted.

Huberty increased her price target for Apple from $115 to $126, but also suggested this scenario in which Apple shares would increase all the way to $150: “Larger screen iPhone drives more global share gains, new services drive accelerating revenue growth and Watch penetration exceeds expectations.”

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster and Evercore analyst Rob Cihra both increased their estimates for Apple”s stock price to $135 Thursday, arguing that any struggles to supply enough iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus for holiday shopping demand would not cost Apple in the long run.

“Supply constraints could limit meaningful upside in December,” Munster wrote. “However, we also believe that most consumers will wait to get an iPhone, thus the supply limits should extend the cycle into March.”

Intel received a larger daily bump, jumping 4.7 percent to $35.95 — the highest price since February of 2001 — while predicting stronger-than-expected revenue increases next year to analysts visiting the chipmaker”s Santa Clara headquarters.

“After two years of decline, we”re growing again,” Chief Financial Officer Stacy Smith proclaimed at Thursday”s meeting. “2014 is turning out to be a better year than we thought.”

After two years of revenue declines, Intel is expected to grow sales this year by about 6 percent, and analysts were expecting growth of 3 percent next year. However, the company said in a statement that growth will actually be in the “mid-single digits,” while also revealing an increase for Intel”s dividend payments.

SV150 market report: Intuit, Splunk, Aruba announce earnings

Gains from Apple and Intel helped push Wall Street indexes to yet more new records and help Silicon Valley tech stocks generate strong gains overall ahead of a handful of earnings reports after the bell.

Silicon Valley cloud software efforts proved popular in Thursday”s earnings reports, while the networking sector continued to struggle. Mountain View financial-software company Intuit — which is making the switch to a software-as-a-service model — gained in late trading after announcing a net loss of $114 million, or 29 cents a share, on sales of $672 million. Our shift to the cloud continues to accelerate customer growth, led by QuickBooks Online,” Intuit CEO Brad Smith said in a prepared statement. San Francisco big-data company Splunk experienced even larger gains after declaring a loss of $48.6 million, or 40 cents a share, on sales of $116 million, as CEO Godfrey Sullivan declared, “We had our best quarter yet with Splunk Cloud.” Silicon Valley”s networking sector continued to struggle, though, as Aruba Networks plunged in late trading after the Sunnyvale company revealed profits of $2.7 million, or 2 cents a share, on sales of $207.8 million.

Struggles in the networking sector could lead to a wave of acquisitions: After Wednesday”s $400 million-plus bid for Fremont”s Oplink Communications, Oplink rivals in optical networking Oclaro (up 10.6 percent, the largest daily gain in the SV150), Finisar (up 4.5 percent) and JDS Uniphase (up 1.9 percent) all had strong days as investors bet they will also be involved in consolidations. Meanwhile, struggling San Francisco networking company Riverbed Technology has received bids from three private-equity firms that want to acquire the company, Reuters reported; Riverbed gained 1.9 percent to 20.52 on the day, keeping its market valuation higher than $3 billion.

Google announced a new service that allows readers to block ads on certain websites and settled a patent beef with Rockstar, and the Mountain View company”s stock dropped 0.6 percent to $543.76. After stealing Google”s spot as the default search engine on Mozilla”s Firefox browser, Yahoo added 1.3 percent to $51.25. Netflix continues to command the most Internet bandwidth during peak periods, and the Los Gatos company is reportedly using its position to organize a meeting of some of the most powerful people in the media business; Netflix shares gained 1.4 percent to $368.14 Thursday. Tesla Motors increased 0.4 percent to $248.71 as Indian news outlets reported that the electric car maker would be targeting that country for sales, and Facebook gained 0.4 percent to $73.60 while convincing small businesses to post video to its social network.